The lines appear to be developing after use, in at least one case just the space of a day. Complaints have arisen on Reddit, Twitter, Apple's support forums and elsewhere.

Restarting or restoring a device doesn't fix the problem. Only a minority of people are believed to be affected though, regardless of a phone's configuration or the region where it was bought.

Apple is replacing affected iPhones for free, MacRumors indicated. At the same time it's thought to be collecting data for engineers with the hope of diagnosing the issue.

A similar glitch once affected the OLED screen on Samsung's Galaxy S7. Indeed Samsung is thought to be the lone OLED supplier for the iPhone X, as the only company with enough manufacturing capacity to meet Apple demands.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

The problem with social media and the internet is that everything is magnified a thousand fold. Even if a dozen people have this issue, out of MILLIONS, everyone one of these stories is shared infinitely to millions of people, on thousands of sites and countless comments, and suddenly this infinitesimal small number starts to seem like half the units.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

FaceID has worked really well for me. I was unsure if I’d like it but it’s turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I even get reliable recognition at an angle with the iPhone on the table while leaning over. As far as unoptimised apps, it really looks no different than if the apps were running on a non-iPhone X. Not ideal, but not any worse than another iPhone—the OLED makes the upper/lower spots actual black and so it mostly looks like it just has bezels.

More on topic, my iPhone X has an issue of white colour uniformity on the display (it’s whiter on the right side). I’m really sensitive to it—to my shame I went through about 16 returns over 3 months of the original iPad Air to get a decently uniform display! That was really bad though, not sure how most people didn’t notice it. I don’t want to go through that experience again and so I’ll try one return/exchange of this X to see if I can get a more uniform display.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

Shouldn't have bought it so early, bro. I'm waiting until at least February. Why is Face ID an issue for you (just curious)?

The problem with social media and the internet is that everything is magnified a thousand fold. Even if a dozen people have this issue, out of MILLIONS, everyone one of these stories is shared infinitely to millions of people, on thousands of sites and countless comments, and suddenly this infinitesimal small number starts to seem like half the units.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

Most early adopters know what they're signing up for. Most. When the "Giant iPod Touch" appeared in 2010, most iOS apps were optimized for the iPhone screen. That era quickly passed.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

FaceID has worked really well for me. I was unsure if I’d like it but it’s turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I even get reliable recognition at an angle with the iPhone on the table while leaning over. As far as unoptimised apps, it really looks no different than if the apps were running on a non-iPhone X. Not ideal, but not any worse than another iPhone—the OLED makes the upper/lower spots actual black and so it mostly looks like it just has bezels.

More on topic, my iPhone X has an issue of white colour uniformity on the display (it’s whiter on the right side). I’m really sensitive to it—to my shame I went through about 16 returns over 3 months of the original iPad Air to get a decently uniform display! That was really bad though, not sure how most people didn’t notice it. I don’t want to go through that experience again and so I’ll try one return/exchange of this X to see if I can get a more uniform display.

Georgie,

I don't want to presume, but if you are female, you may be of a subset that can sees color differently.

Remember recently when one person (or two, some small number anyway) rec'd one of the Google Pixel phones without an OS and it was blown up like it was a widespread and regular occurrence? Think there was a thread here about it. The blogosphere loves kicking the big boys, doesn't have to be Apple.

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

FaceID has worked really well for me. I was unsure if I’d like it but it’s turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I even get reliable recognition at an angle with the iPhone on the table while leaning over. As far as unoptimised apps, it really looks no different than if the apps were running on a non-iPhone X. Not ideal, but not any worse than another iPhone—the OLED makes the upper/lower spots actual black and so it mostly looks like it just has bezels.

More on topic, my iPhone X has an issue of white colour uniformity on the display (it’s whiter on the right side). I’m really sensitive to it—to my shame I went through about 16 returns over 3 months of the original iPad Air to get a decently uniform display! That was really bad though, not sure how most people didn’t notice it. I don’t want to go through that experience again and so I’ll try one return/exchange of this X to see if I can get a more uniform display.

My iPhone 6s has the color non-uniformity problem (warmer on left side, cooler on right side). When I compared it to iPhones at the local Apple Store, I realized this was a common Apple problem and that I'm one of a very few people who can recognize it (photographer used to looking for white balance). Luckily my iPad Pro doesn't have the same issue (with that, it's just the angle of view, a typical problem with larger LCDs). When we are buying products made by a company that doesn't care about details anymore, who's making products for average consumers who don't see these details, this is the kind of defect that gets ignored as "normal".

Have this phone for a week. Need to decide if I am keeping it. FaceID is a pain in the rear. Most apps are not optimized for the notch so they are condensed. I realize app optimization will take time but $1200 with tax for this type of experience has been a bit of a bummer.

FaceID has worked really well for me. I was unsure if I’d like it but it’s turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I even get reliable recognition at an angle with the iPhone on the table while leaning over. As far as unoptimised apps, it really looks no different than if the apps were running on a non-iPhone X. Not ideal, but not any worse than another iPhone—the OLED makes the upper/lower spots actual black and so it mostly looks like it just has bezels.

More on topic, my iPhone X has an issue of white colour uniformity on the display (it’s whiter on the right side). I’m really sensitive to it—to my shame I went through about 16 returns over 3 months of the original iPad Air to get a decently uniform display! That was really bad though, not sure how most people didn’t notice it. I don’t want to go through that experience again and so I’ll try one return/exchange of this X to see if I can get a more uniform display.

Georgie,

I don't want to presume, but if you are female, you may be of a subset that can sees color differently.

You're talking about perception of one tone. The original poster is talking about lack of uniformity. It doesn't take a quirk of genetics to recognize this inconsistency. All it takes is the inconsistency to be present and a bit of attention (trained eyes, maybe).

At least it's all the way over on the side I guess, as opposed to down the middle. Apple will replace it of course, just might take month or two for them to have adequate inventory to do so

Yes, Apple probably will either replace the screen (to fix the green line on the side problem) or replace the complete phone. (With my cracked iPad Air 2 screen, Apple gave me a new iPad.)

* Also, keeping this in perspective, let's look at a competitor, the highly rated Pixel 2 XL and its screen.

"...the Pixel 2 XL... Its display, however, has been widely criticised for a host of reasons, including washed out colors, significant blue shift when viewed at an angle, lines of dead or colored pixels, graininess, and light bleed, just to name a few...

multiple users have been complaining that the Pixel 2 XL's screen will occasionally flash when locking or unlocking the device."